A day to remember

All gone now.

They came on Monday to Fort Richardson National Cemetery to say goodbye, to remember, to honor. They laid wreaths and big cheery bouquets by white marble headstones that stretch for rows and rows.

Some 5,000 military service members and their families are buried at Fort Rich. Some of the tombstones are etched with slivers of stories: Inupiaq hunter and fisherman. Rescuer of dogs. Race car grampa. Adventurous soul.

Beloved.

Little American flags marked each grave on Memorial Day. Big flags lining Old Glory Avenue whipped in the wind on a spectacular May day. Boy Scouts handed out programs. One silver-haired couple carried their own red, white and blue folding chairs. The speaker from Washington, D.C., talked about the ultimate sacrifice.

Rachel Miller came to remember her best friend, Michelle "Shelly" Rinehart, who died in 2006 while stationed with her husband and children at Travis Air Force Base in California. She was a military wife, just 27. She had back problems and may have died from drug interactions, Miller said.

Rinehart's young sons came to her grave Monday, and her sisters and mother, along with Miller and her little boy. They come often, not just on Memorial Day.

Miller, who had been friends with Shelly since seventh grade, was pregnant when Shelly died. They used to talk about raising their kids together.

"She would probably get a kick out of the kids out here, dancing around and wrestling around in front of her," Miller said.

Ethan Rinehart, now 7, said his mother took good care of him and his little brother, Connor, 4. He just liked being with her.

The cemetery is beautiful, Miller said.

"I like this home. And that's what we call it. It's Shelly's home now. It's so peaceful," she said. "You feel a comfort out here."

Later, after the rest of the family walked away, Ethan went back to the grave. He hugged the tombstone and gave it a quick kiss.

Nearby, Dean Meili was visiting his father's grave with his father's widow, Lucy, whom he pushed along in her wheelchair. They came with other relatives, each with a father to visit.

Darwin James Meili -- Jim to everyone who knew him -- died in 2006 of leukemia. He was 79.

He was drafted into the Army during World War II.

"He stormed the beaches in Normandy," Meili said. His father was injured when artillery fire hit a building. He had a steel plate in his leg. Still, he enlisted for a stint in the Air Force after that.

He never graduated from high school, spent most of his life as a semi-truck driver and stopped only when he became ill. He wanted his son to join the military too, but when Meili became a middle school math teacher, he was pleased. His father was selfless, Meili said. His father and Lucy adopted four children and were good to all of them.

Meili's nephew, Robert Hamner, was there with his wife, Grace, and their children. The Hamners were visiting the graves of both their fathers. His father was a retired Navy serviceman, then an immigration officer, then a security officer. His father always wanted to be buried at the national cemetery, Hamner said.

R.D. Mandell, who served in the Army and the Air Force and is now retired from the Alaska Army National Guard, came to find the graves of two friends.

One, Jacob Melson, was in a Black Hawk helicopter that crashed in northern Iraq in 2006, killing all four Alaska Army Guardsmen aboard, plus eight others. Melson was 22. The deaths were the first war-related fatalities for the Alaska Army Guard since World War II.

Melson was young, lively and fun, said Mandell, who served with Melson's dad and then Melson. The Army eventually concluded that the helicopter wasn't shot down, according to an Associated Press report in 2007. But the cause of the crash remained murky.

The newest grave in the cemetery belonged to Warren Lieb, who died May 18 at age 62 from lung cancer. He served in the Navy in Vietnam, said his wife, Carrie. They had been together since 1971. His freshly dug grave had a temporary marker and lots of flowers, including a white wreath she brought Monday.

His job was to help jets catapult off aircraft carriers, Carrie Lieb said. He was always proud of being in the Navy, she said.

"We were forever watching 'Top Gun,' " she said.

He was born in Bethel, became a carpenter. They lived mainly in Napakiak, where he collected objects from the beaches and turned their home into a living museum. When they moved to Anchorage in 2004, they packed up many of the found treasures, including rocks.

There's a spot for her someday at the national cemetery too, she said. That consoles her.

Find Lisa Demer online at adn.com/contact/ldemer or call 257-4390.